On 4/30/2023 9:50 PM, Lynn McGuire wrote:
> "Irontown Blues (Eight Worlds)" by John Varley
>
> https://www.amazon.com/Irontown-Blues-Eight-Worlds-Varley/dp/1101989378/
>
> Book number four of a loose four book science fiction series plus
> several short stories.  I read the well printed and well bound trade
> paperback published by Ace in 2018.  As with Cory Doctorow, Tom Clancy,
> William Gibson, and many others, I love and have read all of John
> Varley's books.  His Thunder and Lightning four book series is is in my
> six star books.
>
> It has been several hundred years since the Invaders came to the Solar
> System and destroyed all of the infrastructure on Earth to help the
> dolphins and whales in a pristine environment.  No human technology is
> allowed on Earth or Jupiter, space ships landing on the Earth are
> destroyed.  Most of the people on Earth subsequently died.  The 5,000
> humans on the Moon, 1,000 humans on Mars, and the few scattered across
> the outer planets and asteroid belt have expanded to several million
> people since then.
>
> Chris Bach is a private eye, former police officer, in the warrens of
> the Moon.  Life is much easier now than when the Invaders first came to
> Earth and destroyed the resupply rockets to the Moon.  Sherlock is his
> trusty sidekick, a genetically engineered smart bloodhound with an
> implanted AI.  They are visited once day by a woman inflected by a
> biohacker form of leprosy who wants to find the man who infected her.
> Things are never what they seem on the Moon.
>
> John Varley has a website at:
>    https://varley.net/
>
> An explanation of the Eight Worlds universe is at:
>    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Worlds
>
> My rating:  5 out of 5 stars
> Amazon rating:  4.3 out of 5 stars (381 reviews)
>
> Lynn

I forgot to mention the adulations to Heinlein. The Irontowners are
also called Heinleiners due to their dismissal of all authority yet with
a total personal responsibility and for their refusal to get chipped
with an interface for the Central Computer for Luna.

And the Heinleiners are building a five mile long space ship on Luna
called the Robert A. Heinlein.

John Varley usually throws a Heinlein mention in his books somewhere,
sometimes it stands out, sometimes it is well hidden. However, he is
not a Heinlein apologist like Sarah Hoyt or Jo Walton.

Lynn